Ok well this entry is going to be the shortest ever. We left Wellington and headed up the west coast towards Mt Taranaki. We stopped in a small town (small city) to get 2 new tyres for Rodney. After a brief lunch stop on a beach we continued our very dull journey towards the Mountain. When we finally got close we could see it in the distance and it was very impressive. looked just as they described, like Mt Fuji. The way it leveled out was very graceful at the b...

After sailing from Picton on the Interislander and seeing Colin waving a red cloth and going inside to grab some breakfast while the extended family stood waving paddles wildly around the next corner we arrived in Wellington. The journey was really smooth and only took 3 hours. We stayed at the Top 10 in the Lower Hutt area of Wellington. It was the busiest place we had been to since Christchurch. We drove on a busy highway to reach the park. Upon arrival we deci...

We left Motueka and made our way to Nelson, we were quite sad to leave Motueka as we had such a good time there. We did plan to have a few days in Nelson but after arrriving there we thought one afternoon would be enough, it was a pleasant place but it was a bit too busy for our liking! So we made our way towards Picton, we had a wonderful drive there along Queen Charlotte Drive. Again the scenery was just lovely and the road was so windy, every corner we went ro...

We arrived in Motueka after taking the most direct route from the national park and still getting a wee bit lost, not that bad in comparision. Anyway we checked into the Top 10 park and immediatly a leaflet caught my eye 'SKYDIVE ABEL TASMAN' and yes before you could Adam and Eve it we were onto the jump for the following day at 9.15am, arghhhh!!!! We then spent the day relaxing and reading some brochures on Kayaking the Tasman. Well I think Ellie was kinda worri...

Well here goes with a long old blog entry........... After departing Franz Josef we made our way up the rugged west coast towards Hokitika. We did notice on the map and in Lonely Planet that most of the little towns along the way were former Gold Mining communities. So at that we decided to go to Ross to try and earn our millions. Ross was a quaint little place and had a wild west town feel to it. I rushed into the Info centre and rented a panner and spade. We d...